God's Top Eight Beauty Secrets

The magazines that line the racks at the checkout counter are full of secrets, full of secrets on how to improve your life and your relationships. They are full of tips on how to make yourself more beautiful and we all want to be beautiful. Right? Unlike the information you find on the checkout rack, the tips I have to offer are well worn and time tested. They also come with a guarantee to be 100% effective when understood or practiced.

8. You are beautiful because God created you in His image.

Genesis 1: 26

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...." And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Do you know that God thinks you are beautiful? Did you know that when He thought about making you He decided to make you in His own image? What does that mean to be created in God's image? It means that we are special, different than any other creature on earth. God created us in a way that we are able to know Him. We can talk to Him in prayer. There is a place inside our hearts that he is able to dwell.

7. God calls us beautiful when we are gentle and loving and have hope because we trust Him.

1 Peter 3:3 NLT

Don't be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. That is the way the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God.

God looks at our heart and wants to find beauty there. We please Him when we are gentle and kind hearted showing love to others. When we have hope in Him it shows that we trust Him for our needs and for our future. God had kind intentions towards us and wants our very best. Because He thinks of you as His children He wants you to ask Him for all your needs. He wants you to be like Him so when people see how you act they will know you are His beautiful child.

6. You are beautiful when God blesses you.

Numbers 6:24- 26 NLT

May the LORD bless you
and protect you.
May the LORD smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the LORD show you his favor
and give you his peace.'

This is an actual prayer God told the priests in Moses' time to pray for people. It shows us the good things God wants us to have. God want to bless you. That means He wants not only to give you good things, but He wants to show you His favor. That means He wants you to know that you are special to Him. He wants to protect you. That means He wants to take care of you and watch over you. He wants to smile on you. That means when He sees you He smiles. He wants to be gracious to you, that means He wants to treat us better than we deserve. He wants to give you peace instead of fear and worry.

5. Because you are beautiful to Him He sings joyful songs to you.

Zephaniah 3:17 NLT

For the LORD your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song.

When God thinks about you it makes Him sing joyful songs. He sings them to chase away your fears. He sings them to remind you that He is strong. He sings to tell you that you have a Savior. As He sings He pours out His love over you. He sings because He wants to come and live with you in that special place He created in your heart.

4. When we use our hands to help others who have needs God thinks we are more beautiful than jewels.

Proverbs 31:10, 20 NLT

She is worth more than precious rubies... She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy.

God desire us to have hands that help other people. When we look around us do we see anyone we can help? When we look around do we see anyone who needs to have a hug? We can be God's hands by helping and loving other people. When we do that, we are more precious than beautiful jewels to God.

3. When we look to God we have beautiful radiant faces.

Psalm 34:5 NLT

Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

When we are in trouble or are sad, when we think that there is no hope we can look to God. He will see our need and take care of us. And beyond this care and comfort, He will give us something extra. He will make our faces shine with joy. We will not be ashamed of our lives because we know He loves us. We will not feel sorrow because we never asked God for help.

2. We have beautiful feet when we are willing to tell others about Jesus.

Romans 10:15

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

Have you heard the good news about Jesus?

The Bible also tells us:

"Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

1. We are beautiful to God because He paid the highest price for us. God wants us to live with Him forever in a place so beautiful it is hard to describe.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16

God so loved...

For someone who has never felt really deeply loved, these are words they long to hear.

God so loved me...

How wonderful to know that the God who created the universe loves me.

And how much does He love me?

So much, that He sent His one and only Son.

And what does that mean?

He sent His Son whom He loved, whom was an expression of His love, into the world.

Jesus was both God and man. He came from heaven and for awhile lived as a man.

So that we could know what God is like.

So we would know that He understands what it is like to be a man.

So that we might have a relationship with the God who gives eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16

There is something deep down inside us that longs to be loved.

There is something deep down inside us that longs to communicate with our Creator.

So, it is good to know that God is a Creator who loves and understands us. He didn't wait until we thought that we might need Him. Before the world began He decided to send Jesus, because He knew we would need Him.

There is also something deep down inside us that tells us that something in this life is just not right. Life isn't the way it is supposed to be. People don't love the way they should.

People don't, but God does. He understands that we are prone to make bad choices, that no matter how hard we try, we cannot really be good. And He is painfully aware that these things separate us from Him. Our actions, attitudes, and most of all the belief that we can take care of ourselves and we really don't need Him are a barrier to receiving His love and His gift of eternal life. God calls these barriers sin and the Bible says, the wages of sin is death, or eternal separation from God.

^"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

So He sent His Son...

Jesus lived

a perfect life.

A life of the best choices,

a life that pleased God,

A life that depended on God the Father for everything.

Jesus was never separated from God except for one moment in eternity.

While He hung on the cross, He took on all the things that keep us from God, all our sin and said "I will pay the penalty of death for all who have sinned". The Bible says

"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

The sin of the world was placed on Jesus and He experienced the full effect of our sin. God turned away from His Son and Jesus experienced separation from God. Then He died.

Since Jesus lived a perfect life and never did anything that displeased God, death could not hold Him, it had no power over Him. Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. God accepted that Jesus had taken all our sin and died instead of us. And God said it was enough.

It was enough that

Whosoever believes that Jesus died in their place and rose from the dead would be accepted by God as pure and blameless, without sin.

And God will give them eternal life when they believe in Jesus and say that they need Him in their lives to help them live in a way that pleases Him.

If you do not know God's love,

if you aren't sure that Jesus died in your place because you are not able to be good enough to be right with God,

if you aren't certain you have received the gift of eternal life

you can experience all these things today.

Eternal life begins with a simple prayer.

Dear God,

I am a sinner.

I have decided to turn away from my sin and I want your forgiveness.

I realize Jesus died in my place.

Please forgive my sins and come into my heart, into my life.

You are God and worthy to be honored and obeyed.

The Bible says

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved."

For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Romans 10: 9-10, 13 NLT

Unless Indicated all Bible verses are NIV, the New International Version